Part Three:
Our third morning stared nice and early at 5:15 AM with no alarm needed. Even at that time, we still had gotten a solid 8+ hours of sleep in. We watched one of the three channels that were in English and packed up our things, as we were to be moving hotels that day. (A small note on Japanese television and it’s commercials. Every single one is for some kind of miracle pill or cream to make you younger, have softer skin or something else which you probably will not get from a pill.) I managed to catch up on a little bit of work as well before going up for our first breakfast at 7 AM. After some fruit, salad and a drink, we went back to our room and sent our luggage downstairs to storage. I went to alert the front desk of our tour guide who was to be coming and looking for us and found out he had gone t the wrong Hyatt and would be 30 minutes late. We took this opportunity to refresh ourselves once again in the Regency Club and make sure we had a stomach full of food for our day’s trip.
Our tour guide turned out to be this very nice older Japanese gentleman in a raggedy white bucket cap. This cap would be my savior many times that day, as we would be walking through large crowds and that white cap made him stand out. Our guide while from a free service was probably worth what we paid for. He took us around to a bunch of sights, but did not have much more to say than the placards by the places we went to see. We first went to purchase/reserve tickets for a train to Hakone, where we would spend the day and get to see Mt Fuji “up close” the next day. After an unprecedented 35 minutes at the counter, we finally had our tickets and were ready to move on to the day’s activities.
Our first stop was a shrine/temple right by Harajuku that seemed to be hiding amongst everyday life. There was a path into a wooded area that would lead us right to the temple. Along the way there was a huge display of sake in barrels and a display of wine barrels opposite them. Additionally, there were 20+ extremely detailed ice sculptures lining the pathway, as it was the New Year (I think that was the reason). As was mentioned, due to the New Year, what seemed like the entire Tokyo was out to offer donations and ask for good luck in the year to come.
After the temple, we went to a couple of touristy streets and then to Akihabara. Akihabara is a huge technology, video game and cosplay area that has entire buildings dedicated to this stuff. It is entirely overwhelming for most people, but for the few that enjoy this stuff, it is like heaven. A word of caution: most of the characters in these games etc. are very scantily clad cartoon women. So proceed at your own risk.
After Akihabara, we went to see another temple, which was even more crowded, but had a very nice market/shouk type area leading up to the main temple area. It is very hard to put into words some of the things we saw at the temple, but hopefully I will get a chance to put some pictures up soon enough so you can see it.
Guarding the entrance to the temple are two giant statues on either side, one representing thunder and the other wind. There was a bit more meaning and depth behind the statues, but I do not recall it. On the opposite side of the entrance, are giant straw sandals on either side of the exit. For what reason and purpose, I have no idea. After taking some pictures, we started to head back and call it a day.